Why Australian students are skipping school camps and what they’re missing out on
It was once a rite of passage but kids are increasingly refusing to go to camp and be away from their parents.
Kids around the country are refusing to attend school camp or having to be picked up by their parents midway through due to anxiety, experts say.
It is also becoming increasingly difficult to persuade parents to let their children attend camps as many of them no longer see them as vital for personal development.
Parents no longer supported children to “manage discomfort”, Australian Primary Principals Association president Angela Falkenberg said, which led to students missing camp.
She had heard of instances “where the child is so distressed” they had to be picked up early from the camp site.
“A story I heard … was they (students and staff) had taken the bus to a city for a camp and as the children were coming off the bus, they heard a rustle in the bushes,” she said.
“It was one of the parents who had flown ahead and was hiding to check that her son getting off the bus was okay.”
Clinical psychologist and associate professor at Monash University, Dr David Moseley, said while it was “very normal” to feel apprehension before camp, there had been an increase in anxiety post-Covid when there was “a sense of the outside world being more dangerous”.
He added parents increasingly did not see the “good evidence” that camps led to improved confidence, social skills and independence.
Among students experiencing anxiety was Ngutu College student Felicia, who threatened to run away ahead of a planned trip to Woodhouse Adventure Park in the Adelaide Hills this year.
The 12-year-old’s mother Kathy Kean said her daughter, who has anxiety and autism, was unsure whether she would be able to cope at camp.
Her worries about the two-night camp were the food, sleeping arrangements and the prospect of socialising with another particular student.
“The first night I was a bit more on edge, waking to see if anything happens,” said Ms Kean, 40, from Para Hills.
But letting Felicia know she could be picked up midway through the trip and downloading the site’s layout, meant the student stayed the course.
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Woodhouse director of outdoor education Steph Tite said the site had responded to an increase in anxiety among students by introducing virtual tours of activities and their accommodation “to reduce the unknowns”.
Andrew Knight, head of outdoor education peak body Outdoors Victoria, said there had been an “uptick” in the number of students opting out of school camps in the state, in part, due to increased screen time.
“If those kids are spending time on screens, they’re not as confident going into an outdoor environment,” he said.
His counterpart in NSW, Lori Modde, said parents were taking “a lot more convincing” to let their children attend school camp as schools “battle” to highlight the benefits of outdoor education.
Outdoors Queensland head Dom Courtney said camp sites and schools which had been noticing students missing out due to anxiety, had taken “proactive measures” such as having older children speak about their positive experiences.
